


The Tale of the Shikon no Miko

by MiddaySuperH



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: F/M, It'll be a surprise, Other, grandpa higurashi and mama higurashi get legit names, kagome can hold her own now, kagome gets miko training in the south, or wait, shant be telling who will end up with who, the herbalist institute
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 15:42:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28851504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiddaySuperH/pseuds/MiddaySuperH
Summary: Set a few years after the defeat of Naraku, Higurashi Kagome is studying more in the present before returning to the Feudal Era. With the help of her grandfather, she sets off to one of his friends in the south to learn more about natural healing and spirituality. While training under Shimizu Toshimi at the Shimizu family shrine, she makes a chance encounter from one of her friends in the past that sets the course of what needs to be done in the past. What will happen to the Shikon no Miko now?
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	1. Part I: The Herbalist Institute: Prelude I

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all, I'm taking a stab at writing another fic on this site and honestly I'm much more enthusiastic about this one versus my other one (plus I've plotted out about 4 arcs - with a side story, so this might take a while but I'm very excited!)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beginning or rather the end? Who knows?

Part I: The Herbalist Institute

Prelude I: The Journal

Unknown time period

Unknown location

“Shhh, be quiet otherwise she’ll hear.”

“Spffff, you know, Tōga, for being the eldest, you’re remarkably dumb. She can’t hear us like we can hear her.”

The elder boy turned to face the girl to his left dumbly. She merely snickered at the boy’s astounded face. He huffed, blowing a stray lock of silver hair out of his eyes, quite obviously annoyed that they were trying to still do this mock mission of theirs. The rustling of dried papers and bound books seemed to ricochet around the dimly lit room, not that the two who were in the midst of searching for something needed any light. Their eyes were more than powerful enough to see through the mere dark.

“Onī-chan, onē-chan, can you keep it down.” A younger, more timid voice came from behind, their form small against the wall, almost fully hidden next to the towering bookshelves.

“Shhh, Katsuki-chan, just keep watch okay.” Towa whispered towards Katsuki’s direction. Compared to Katsuki’s untrained eyes due to her youth, Towa (and by default, Tōga’s as well) had been training for years to be accustomed to the differing light levels.

“Ahh, I think I’ve found something!” An excited whisper broke the silence of the three. Two pairs of eyes turned immediately to Towa’s elated voice.

In the darkness, Tōga could make out a thick bound book in his sister’s hands, worn down by the years. Lacking any decoration of any sort besides the simple title of “The Journal of Higurashi Kagome” on the front cover.

“Onē-chan, what does it say?” Came the intrigued voice of Katsuki. She had inched forward, crawling on her hands and knees to her two elder siblings to avoid knocking into anything.

“Mmh, it looks like her journal but from a long time ago. Like maybe a hundred years or so? It definitely doesn’t have a recent scent of hers.” Towa sniffed again, trying to analyze the scents further but to no avail. She handed to book to her brother next to her. Tōga was none too please but accepted it anyways, filtering through the pages.

A large majority of the characters were unfamiliar to their young minds, their eyes glazing over in confusion. Even the dates listed at the tops of the pages didn’t seem to make sense, seemingly taking place hundreds of years into the future.

The trio were hunched over the hefty volume, trying to piece together the unknown characters and unfamiliar words. Over the course of a few hours, Katsuki crept back to her post by the shoji screen and fell asleep waiting for her elder siblings to finish.

* * *

Hours later, the shoji screen slid open with a bang. “Hey, what’s with all of this ruckus? What are you three doing in here?” The intruder stood tall in the doorway, palm facing up with a small ball of blue fox fire illuminating his features and green eyes twinkling with mischief. The small girl closest to the door squealed in fright, her untrained, delicate ears not picking up on the light footed kitsune during his approach.

“Ani-ue,” Katsuki jumped up and ran to the figure in the doorframe, quickly hugging his legs. “Onī-chan, and onē-chan, dragged me here. I wanted to stay back with Mikoto-sensei.” The girl wrapped around the much taller kitsune’s legs. The kitsune hunched over to Katsuki’s shaking head and ruffled her dark hair. He straightened and looked back at the two still huddled over the book, their wide eyes quivering in fear.

“Ani-ue,” The silver haired boy said, closing the book sharply and putting it back on the lower shelf. “Please don’t tell Mama, we were snooping in her stuff.”

Shippō in all of his years wanted to laugh and praise his younger siblings for their tact and burgeoning ability to deftly sneak around under their mother’s weak nose. However, that would have to wait as the Lady of the house had demanded to know the whereabouts of her three youngest children prior to the family’s evening meal. And thus, Shippō, the only child currently home (besides previously mentioned troublemakers, of course), was tasked with the arduous task of locating them.

(Of course, the trio’s father or mother could both very easily locate them but at the time they were attending other more serious matters of state.)

Taking Katsuki into his arms, Shippō sent a flare of youki to the elder twins and motioned to fall into line. The two begrudgingly followed after, heads down and auras naturally stifled and brimming with the feeling of disappointment. Shippō led the sibling trio out of the storeroom building and out into one of the many courtyards of the House of the West.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Japanese tidbits (I'm not fluent in Japanese so please take these with a grain of salt). Also I'll be using macrons (the bar above vowels, only means that the vowel is held longer, e.g. ii would be ī, and so on and so forth)
> 
> お兄ちゃん- onīchan [for a more formal setting I’ll probably use this兄 (ani)] – older brother  
> お姉ちゃん – onēchan [again, more formal term would be ->姉 (ane)] - older sister  
> 兄上 - aniue (a formal and archaic, form of "brother"; only for older brothers)


	2. The Letter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grandpa Higurashi receives a letter from an old friend. Kagome begins her preparations.

\- The Letter -

Tokyo, 2002, late Fall

Higurashi Shrine

The sun was shining through the leafy branches of the Goshinboku, with a light breeze fluttering through the canopy. Bearing the indents of thousands of tiny arrowheads and one large groove that dominated over the others in size. The tree stood majestically in the shrine yard, towering over the other, much younger trees and greenery. Even despite the loss of a majority of its leaves, the tree still retained its imposing and almost regal presence.

A young woman, wearing the old style white hakui and red hibakama shrine uniform, was sweeping dead leaves from under the sacred tree and into a small pile of varying reds and yellows. The hard sound of clacking wood against stone echoed across the courtyard. The woman jumped and spun around quickly, her wide hibakama catching on her geta causing her to stumble a bit before she caught her balance on the broomstick.

“Jī-chan, you can’t just appear out of nowhere like that,” the woman reprimanded the old man, who was running as though he were not as old as he was. The short statured man paused a few paces before the woman, now standing at her full height and glaring at the old man.

“Ah, Kagome, I have wonderful news.” The old man said, waving a pristine envelope rapidly. The woman, Kagome, finally took notice of what was held in the clutches of her grandfather’s hands.

“Jī-chan, what’s in your hand?” She asked, her fierce glare softening. He merely smiled up at her, presenting the opened envelope to her. She readily took it with two outstretched hands, the broom now in the crook of her arm so as to not drop it. Pulling the letter from within, she glanced at the page, perusing the fast-written script.

_Higurashi Hideo- haikei,_

_As the weather cools, I do hope you’ve been taking care of yourself._

_I’ve looked over the qualifications of your granddaughter, Higurashi Kagome, and she seems to be a great addition to the training class at the Shimizu Shrine. We await her arrival with great anticipation._

_Please give my regards to your family and please take care of yourself as the air continues to cool._

_Shimizu Toshimi-keigu_

Kagome looked at her grandfather in shock. “Jī-chan, when did you ask about this?” She ran forward towards him forgetting the broomstick completely, arms surrounding her grandfather’s warm form in an excited hug.

(For once, Hideo felt appreciated since he knew his darling granddaughter didn’t take too kindly to all of the precious artefacts that he gave her. Especially the ones he had scrounged up from supposedly traditional medicine shops in back alleys.)

“Ahh, jī-chan, when do I start? Did you mention a time or something? It didn’t seem-“ Her grandfather cut her off with another toothy smile.

“As soon as you can pack a bag and we can buy a train ticket for you.”

Kagome paled, taking a step back. “What do you mean, ‘buy a train ticket’? Jī-chan, how far away is your friend’s shrine?”

“It’s a few hours train to Shimane-ken,” he replied. “We’ll be a mere phone call away, but I’m sure you’ll be put right to work once you arrive and too busy or too tired to call home.” He looked a little solemn at the notion.

“Oh, jī-chan, you know I would call without a moment’s hesitation. I assume I’ll be training there for a year or more, right?” She paused, lost in thought. “What about Inuyasha? What if he comes through the well, and I’m not there to see him?” Her mind ran through multiple possibilities. It had only been a couple of months since she had last seen Inuyasha and the gang back in the Sengoku era.

The past few months since she had returned had been mostly spent studying in the library just a few blocks from her home. Pouring over numerous books on Kanpō medicine, she had spent hours there. But not just Kanpō ideology, there she also read about Chinese medicine and Korean medicine. And much to her grandfather’s joy, she read more about shrine duties.

The time spent away from the Sengoku era was both good for her soul and self-discovery. It helped her realize a lot of things but the most important was that she wanted to go back for sure and probably stay there if the well allowed.

(In the off chance that the well would let her stay, she was going to study and hopefully accelerate the modern world’s medical knowledge but that was just a wild goal for her. Kagome knew she probably wouldn’t live to see the fruits of her labors but a girl could wish regardless.)

“Kagome –,“ a distant voice rang out.

“Mnmh?” She shook her head, very obviously lost in thought but tried to hide the fact. She was still clutching her grandfather’s letter, fearing that if she let go, it would just evaporate into dust and fly in the wind.

“Kagome, your mother has been calling you for the past fifteen minutes.” Her grandfather chuckled, having hopelessly tried to nudge his obstinate granddaughter back into the warmth of their house on the shrine property.

For obvious reasons, Kagome didn’t believe a word her grandfather said. _How on earth was I completely still for fifteen minutes? Oh, jī-chan, you silly old man._ In spite of her thinking, Kagome leaned down to grab the broom that she dropped earlier and turned swiftly to put it back in the shrine shed just a few paces from the Bone Eater Well house.

She pulled on the rusting handle, the door creaking from lack of use over the years. Though not for the fact that the tool shed hadn’t been used for years, the Higurashi’s merely forgot to close the door and thus the joints fell into disrepair.

Kagome stepped into the dimly lit shed, her hand searching for the light switch on the wall because despite it being midday, the shed was pitch black, having no windows except for the currently open door. Her hand made contact, and she was temporarily blinded by the solitary light bulb suspended on a thin cable off the eaves. The shelves lining the walls were covered in various tools, some the typical handyman’s tools for renovations such as hammers, shovels, various sizes of planks and wood boards. But on the other side of the shed there were also specific shrine cleaning tools, bags of salt, and delicate cloths for cleaning the various religious artefacts littered around the shrine grounds.

Kagome looked around, checking that everything was in its designated place before returning outside and locking up. Everything seemed to be in order, so she swiftly departed, making sure she turned the light off.

Escaping the dimly light shed and walking back outside caused Kagome’s eyes to water a bit as they adjusted to the brightness of the fall weather. She made her way back through the shrine to the Higurashi’s home on the property, tucked away from the general shrine area to give a sense of privacy to its occupants.

She strolled underneath the changing canopy of leaves above, contemplating her near future. And of course, it was logical that thinking of her future would dwell back to the past or rather the time period that her friends were from. The Sengoku period.

She hadn’t seen them in over a month, having told them that she was going to do some self-training for a bit and return even stronger.

It had barely been a year since she wished the Shikon no Tama away, but honestly Kagome had still felt the jewel’s presence even without the physical jewel. She theorized that the jewel had become one with herself and melding with her to become stronger. Inuyasha had deftly denied that, adamantly saying that he didn’t sense anything different about Kagome. Miroku echoed the hanyō’s thoughts, even going as offering Kagome a full search of the jewel on her person. She, and Sango, denied heavily and said it would be fine without such a disturbing suggestion.

* * *

The next morning, Kagome awoke with a new goal and mindset. She was going to spend the next year or so training with uncharacteristic motivation. Not to say that she had never been motivated before. Her adventures with Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, Kirara, and Shippō and their quest to defeat Naraku was motivation enough to survive to see the end of the wretched hanyō.

However, getting out of bed seemed to be harder than her new aspirations. Bundled up tightly underneath her blankets in the cooling fall air that was still blowing in because Kagome had forgotten to close her window the night before after she did meditation at the advice of Miroku to help strengthen her holy powers.

The sun, hiding behind dark clouds, also didn’t help much with the getting out of bed factor. The chance for rain seemed very high much to Kagome’s chagrin, as she had to run errands before the journey south (hopefully to somewhat more mild weather than the temperamental Tokyo weather she grew up with). 

(It was going to be a long day, that’s for sure.)

Kagome wormed herself out of her delectably warm blankets and braced herself for the oncoming cold. She quickly dressed, bundling as much as she could without overheating, knowing she was probably going to work a sweat gathering her much needed supplies for the journey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some additional notes and tidbits {I really like footnotes fyi :)}  
> \- Hakui is the white robe hibakama are the red hakama that Shrine maidens wear  
> \- Jī-chan - Japanese for grandfather, however this is the form polite for one’s own grandfather and not a general grandfather term  
> \- Shimane Prefecture is actually known for its mountainous landscape with rice farms imbedded in the landscape – however for this story, Shimizu shrine is in the mountains growing medicinal herbs for healing. Also, this prefecture has a lot of national parks and has really beautiful coastlines.  
> \- Salt is common in Shinto beliefs, as it is believed to purify evil spirits.  
> \- The Shikon no Tama, or the Jewel of the Four Souls. Created by Midoriko around the half point of the Heian period (794-1185 AD). She was a powerful priestess, and created the jewel to seal herself and a great demon that she was battling at the time – the jewel disappeared for roughly 500 years. It resurfaced during the Sengoku Period (1467-1615 AD) and that’s when Inuyasha (the main story) takes place. Essentially, this jewel has both the power to give energy boosts to both religious and demon entities. The jewel returned once more 500 years after the death of Kikyō, then the caretaker of the jewel and was embedded within Kagome when she was born in 1982.  
> \- If I’m following linguistic rules, I should write Tokyo as Tōkyō but seeing as it’s a “common” term worldwide I won’t try to create more confusion.
> 
> Might come back and edit this to make it longer, but for now it's quite short and sweet (I hope).

**Author's Note:**

> Japanese tidbits (I'm not fluent in Japanese so please take these with a grain of salt). Also I'll be using macrons (the bar above vowels, only means that the vowel is held longer, e.g. ii would be ī, and so on and so forth)
> 
> お兄ちゃん- oniichan [for a more formal setting I’ll probably use this兄 (ani)] – older brother  
> お姉ちゃん – onēchan [again, more formal term would be ->姉 (ane)] - older sister  
> 兄上 - aniue (a formal and archaic, form of "brother"; only for older brothers)


End file.
